Sunday, April 29, 2012

Demonstators protest against President Al-Assad in Syria
Story taken from
Edward Yeranian from Cario

The head of the United Nations observer team in Syria, Norwegian Gen. Robert Mood is due in the capital Damascus Saturday, to give a fresh impetus to a mission which critics claim is fraying amid persistent violations of an over two-week old ceasefire. There have been reports of more clashes between government and opposition forces in several areas of the country.

A U.N. observer team visited the flashpoint city of Homs Saturday afternoon, just as the Norwegian general due to take charge of the mission headed to Damascus. Major General Robert Mood is a veteran of numerous U.N. peacekeeping missions.

Just over a dozen U.N. observers are now on the ground in Syria, despite efforts to boost the strength of the team to the 300-strong force approved by the U.N. Security Council. But Colonel Amed Himiche, a member of the observer team, said preparations are now complete in Syria for the arrival of the full 300 member observer team.

Clashes between government troops and rebel soldiers took place near the presidential palace in Latakia and the outskirts of Damascus, amid reports of fresh desertions to the rebel side. An activist told the French Press Agency that soldiers from a military base near the palace “deserted with their weapons.”

Syria's official state news agency SANA reported that a clash near Syria's commercial capital of Aleppo left three soldiers and two rebels dead. The agency also said that a loyalist military unit thwarted an attempt by armed rebels “trying to infiltrate from the sea” in Latakia.

In nearby Lebanon, the country's navy intercepted a ship off the coast that was reportedly carrying weapons from Libya to the Syrian rebels. The Liberian-flagged vessel was due to dock in the northern Lebanese port of Tripoli.

The Syrian government has complained repeatedly that weapons were being smuggled from neighboring countries to help the rebels. The rebels, in turn, complain that Syrian allies Iran and Russia have been arming the government.

Scholar Joshua Landis, who heads the Middle East program at the University of Oklahoma, argues that both the government and the opposition are using the brokered ceasefire to rearm and regroup:

“The Annan peace plan is being used by both sides to regroup, rearm and reorganize. The Syrian regime is trying to convince the world that it's fighting terrorism and Islamists and the opposition needs a breather to get armed, organized, [and] try to knit together some communications network that will help them bring together their scattered groups and militias and recover from this offensive waged against them by the regime in the last few months," he said.

Landis was pessimistic about long term chances that the peace plan for Syria would work. "Both sides,” he said,”are raising the ante. Larger weapons are being used and we're seeing more carbombs, assassinations, and attacks on vehicles.” He also warned that a series of “tit-for-tat sectarian revenge attacks” is threatening a further “downward spiral.”

It sounds like something from a science fiction film, but soon, a ‘magic bullet’ that floats around in the air waiting for its target could become science fact.

This far-fetched sounding piece of ammunition isn’t designed to kill, though.

Called ‘Nonlethal Warhead for Miniature Organic Precision Munitions’, there isn’t even a prototype yet - but it’s on the U.S Army’s wish list.

It’s been requested through the U.S Government’s ‘Small Business Innovation Research’ program, which encourages companies to research and build products in return for a potential commercial deal.

For the floating bullet, the Army admits that ‘this effort will require innovative research and advancements in non-lethal technologies which can be packaged within a very small volume and weight’ and suggests that designers should consider ‘mechanical, such as rubber balls; acoustic; chemical; electrical; or dazzle’.

The idea certainly isn’t pie in the sky, as the U.S Army already has a ‘kamikaze’ robotic drone dubbed Switchblade, which quietly hovers before dive-bombing and blowing up a target.

It launches from a tube before its wings fold out as it flies into the air.

The U.S. Army is paying manufacturer AeroVironment $4.9million for the drones to help it develop a new way of killing suspected militants.

The drones have a miniature electric motor and transmit live video from overhead, which helps soldiers identify the enemy.

The operators can then send a message to the drone ‘to arm it and lock its trajectory onto the target’, the company said.

The drone will fly into a target and detonate a small explosive - but it can still be disarmed at the last moment even if it is heading for a kill.

The Army's Close Combat Weapons Systems (CCWS) signed the contract for the drones with AeroVironment last June.

Religious liberty groups are blasting a proposed ordinance that would force churches in Hutchinson, Kan. to rent their facilities for gay weddings and gay parties.

The Hutchinson City Council will consider adding sexual orientation and gender identity to the protected classes in the city’s human relations code. They are expected to vote on the changes next month.

According to the Hutchinson Human Relations Commission, churches that rent out their buildings to the general public would not be allowed to discriminate “against a gay couple who want to rent the building for a party.”

Meryl Dye, a spokesperson for the Human Relations Commission confirmed to Fox News that churches would be subjected to portions of the proposed law.

“They would not be able to discriminate against gay and lesbian or transgender individuals,” Dye said. “That type of protection parallels to what you find in race discrimination. If a church provides lodging or rents a facility they could not discriminate based on race. It’s along that kind of thinking.”

Matthew Staver, chairman of the Liberty Counsel Action, told Fox News the proposed law is “un-American.”

“It is a collision course between religious freedom and the LGBT agenda,” Staver said. “This proposed legislation will ultimately override the religious freedom that is protected under the First Amendment.”

He argued that churches cannot be forced by the government to set aside their religious convictions and their mission. And, he warned, some churches could even be forced to rent their buildings for drag parties.

“What we are ultimately going to see is churches forced to confront this law, forced to do things and allow their facilities to be used by people and for events that diametrically undercut the mission of the church,” he said.

Robert Noland, of the Kansas Family Policy Council, said the law would extend well beyond allowing access for gay weddings.

“They (churches) could not deny renting space to a gay couple if they want to have a party,” he told Fox News. “This is just another example of government creating a law imposing upon the freedom of religion and basically telling churches what they can and can’t do.”

So what could happen to churches in Hutchinson that refuse to accommodate gay parties or weddings?

“Unless the city council includes an exemption for churches, it would generate a discrimination complaint for the gay couple and it would be investigated,” Dye told Fox News. She said any churches found guilty of violating the law could be subjected to fines or other penalties.

Gary Ridge, an associate pastor of Westside Baptist Church, told Fox News their congregation would not comply with the proposed law should it pass. He said their church would refuse to host either gay weddings or parties – even if it meant a possible investigation or fines.

“We apply the Bible to our lives,” he said. “When there is a contradiction between what the city council asks and what the Bible says, we are going to follow the Bible.”

“This is an opportunity for the LGBT community to cram their belief system down on our community,” Ridge said. “It may look like a small step, but it’s not the end. Before you know it they will be able to shut down churches for preaching Romans 1:26-27. We’ll be sued for refusing to have homosexual weddings.”

Ridge said Hutchinson is a conservative city, a part of the Bible Belt – and he blamed the controversy on outsiders.

“This is part of a bigger desire to have their lifestyle condoned and accepted,” he said. “We don’t condone their activity.”

The Hutchinson measure would also have a major impact on private businesses and landlords. Restaurants, bars and retail shops would be required to provide special bathrooms for individuals who may have male body parts but identify as a female.

According to a FAQ sheet provided by the city, employers would also be forced to allow workers to dress based on their gender identity. Read the entire FAQ sheet by clicking here.

“Dress codes would not be precluded as long as an employer allows an employee to appear, groom and dress consistent with the employee’s gender identity and gender expression,” the FAQ stated.

As far as bathrooms, the city FAQ stated, “A transgender person must be allowed to use restrooms appropriate to their gender identity rather than their assigned gender at birth without being harassed or questioned.”

The city’s revised ordinance would also require transgender individuals to use the locker room and shower facilities of their choosing.

Another issue for Hutchinson’s Christian community involves workplace discrimination. The policy dictates that business owners or landlords are not allowed to discriminate based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

“I know a couple who owned a bed and breakfast in Kansas City,” he said. “They decided to shut down because they could see that they were going to be forced to make decisions that might have legal effects upon them. They might be sued if they didn’t rent their facility out to a gay couple who might want to use it.”

Staver said it’s unfair that Christian business owners might have to make decisions about their future.

“You shouldn’t have to choose between participating in the marketplace, running a business or operating a church on the one hand and accepting the LGBT agenda on the other,” Staver said. “This is a battle that is coming. This is a culture divide I think we will see play out across the country.”

Thursday, April 12, 2012

We live in a world where each and every one of us faces the challenge of constant change. Recent events in our world are filling the hearts of millions with fear. The world’s economy seems to be hanging by a thread, as world leaders grapple with the complex issues of our day. Is it possible to face the future with confidence in a society that every day seems to challenge us one and all with so much uncertainty?

I speak today of the hidden glory. Two thousand years ago on the night before his death Jesus Christ told his sorrow filled disciples that he was leaving them. His time had come to die as the eternal sacrifice for all mankind. Yet in the midst of the fear that clutched the hearts of every one of them he made a profound promise. He said I will not leave you comfortless but I will ask the Father to send you the Holy Spirit that he may abide with you forever.

The hidden glory of which I speak is a life changing presence or person who inhabits the hearts of every believer in Jesus Christ. When we confess him as Lord and Savior the Holy Spirit of promise changes our hearts and cleanses us from sin. Our hearts and lives are changed because we come by faith into contact with the living God. From the moment we accept Jesus as our lord and savior the Holy Spirit sets up residence within us. It is that hidden glory of the person of the Holy Spirit that gives every believer hope today.

We carry within our hearts the power and glory of God. This is the manifestation of God living within the hearts of all who have been birthed into Jesus Christ by our faith in him. My heart is flooded with images from my past where the Spirit of God has spoken to me and given me the guidance or direction I needed. His is the most gentile of hearts. How many times have I been reading the word of God and had him speak to my heart just what I needed to hear. How many times has my heart been stirred as he has spoken a word to me from the lips of some minister or teacher.

So many times in my life the Holy Spirit has imparted to me a life changing, life altering revelation. As believers in Christ our lives are not a series of events of random happenstance. No the Holy Spirit is leading and guiding our steps not just from day-to-day but moment-to-moment. In our times of joy and our darkest hours he has always been by our side. When in desperation a believer cries out to God, it is his voice that speaks to the heart, dries our tears and calms our fears. He by his wisdom gives us the direction to see beyond the given situation with love and understanding.

I do not mean to minimize the dangers facing our world today but I do know that whatever dark days lie ahead he will be there sustaining us with what we face. For the Holy Spirit is a divine link to the heart of Father God. His is a mission of compassion to all hurting souls where ever they may be found. The church of Jesus Christ is the greatest force of life and change in the world today. We offer the world hope because the Holy Spirit has given us his heart, compassion, and love. When faced with the onslaughts of hell he fills our hearts with the faith and inspiration of Jesus Christ to minister to the needs of the hurting all around us.

We do not face the future alone for as followers of Jesus Christ the hidden glory of his life and nature resides in every one of us. Do not get caught up in the fear and dark days ahead. It would seem the events foreseen by John, Daniel, and others can be seen just over the horizon. Yet Jesus has promised that no matter what may come we can take hope that he would abide with us forever. We can have confidence in this promise because of the Holy Spirit, that inner glorious one who fills our hearts and destiny with the assurance that God’s words are true.

An Israeli pre-emptive strike against Iran’s nuclear program will probably begin with a rain of Jericho missiles obliterating the heavy water plant in Arak and destroying four small nuclear research reactors at the Nuclear Technology Center in Isfahan.

Submarine-launched cruise missiles will seek out targets at a variety of research facilities across Iran.

Some Israeli aircraft will attack Iran’s power lines with special-purpose munitions that use chemically treated carbon fibres to short-circuit transformers and switching stations to knock out Iran’s power grid.

Black Hawk helicopters (possibly taking off from disused Soviet air bases in Azerbaijan) will deposit Israeli commandos, disguised as members of the Iranian military, outside the Parchin military complex near Tehran, and bomb-equipped dogs will penetrate deep into fortified tunnels at other sites.

A wave of cyber attacks will disrupt Iranian computer and anti-aircraft targeting systems.

Such a scenario — played out and predicted increasingly by war game strategists — looms large as the decade-long diplomatic confrontation with Iran over its suspected nuclear weapons program appears to be drawing to an end.

Talks between Iran and six world powers — the United States, Britain, France, China, Russia and Germany — scheduled to begin in Istanbul next Friday could be the last chance to avoid full-fledged conflict.

If the talks fail, the Middle East could plunge into a regional war before the year is out.

“When Israel identifies a national security threat, it will strike and will strike at great distances,” warns Sam Gardiner, a retired U.S. Air Force Colonel and war game specialist who was hired by the Swedish Defence Research Agency to study the consequences of an Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Faced with evidence of a rapidly advancing Iranian nuclear program and Iran’s continued disregard of UN Security Council ultimatums to freeze nuclear enrichment programs and grant unfettered access to international inspectors, talk of possible pre-emptive military strikes is growing.

Academics, analysts, military strategists, diplomats and politicians are all reviewing recent reports that depict potential war scenarios and try to assess the implications of an Israeli or U.S. military option.

Quiet diplomacy may be collapsing amid the steadily escalating chorus of threats and counter-threats.

“Containment is not a policy option from the Israeli perspective,” says Col. Gardiner. “The more it becomes a serious policy option for the United States, the more Israel will be pushed to take matters into its own hands.”

And if Israel attacks Iran, even against the wishes of the United States, it could, ultimately, draw U.S. troops into the Middle East to finish the job.

“Israel has a long history of conducting operations without notifying the United States and in some cases defying Washington,” Col. Gardiner says in his Swedish report.

“The United States has a long history of trying to pressure Israel with rebukes, withholding military equipment and even sanctions. None of this has done permanent damage to U.S.-Israeli relations. Israel most likely knows that this is the case now.

“The situation has a quality of inevitability about it. It has the feel of Europe prior to World War I.”

Michael O’Hanlon and Bruce Riedel of the Brookings Institution predicted in a report last week, “Unless Iran pauses its uranium enrichment activities, an Israeli or U.S. strike against its nuclear facilities looks likely by next year.”

According to The New York Times, the Pentagon ran a classified two-week-long war game simulation in early March, focusing on the repercussions of a possible Israeli attack on Iran. It concluded an escalating crisis could lead to a regional war.

In the simulation, Iranian jets chased Israeli warplanes after an attack, fired missiles at a U.S. warship in the Persian Gulf and killed 200 U.S. sailors.

The U.S. retaliated by carrying out its own air strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.

“Israel can pull the United States into deploying major air and naval forces into the region to defend its interests and protect the flow of oil through the Gulf,” Col. Gardiner predicted in his study. “If Iran responds even in a very limited way, as it has threatened, Israel can pull the United States into finishing the job on Iranian nuclear sites and destroying Iranian military capabilities.”

Israeli news reports say the country’s security cabinet reviewed an intelligence assessment last weekend that predicted that an Israeli attack on Iran would result in “three weeks of non-stop fighting on multiple fronts” as the result of missile attacks from Lebanon, Syria and Iran.

The conflict, in which Israel would shelter under domestic and U.S. anti-missile defence shields, would cost Israel “fewer than 300” dead, the study said.

That bears out an earlier observation by Israel’s Defence Minister Ehud Barak that Israel could withstand an Iranian counter-attack.

“A war is no picnic,” he told Israeli Radio in November. But he insisted, “There will not be 100,000 dead or 10,000 dead or 1,000 dead. The state of Israel will not be destroyed.”

Not everyone, however, is convinced of the wisdom or ease of an Israeli preemptive strike.

“Even the most brilliant operations researcher can not know, in the case of Iran, the actual quality and precision of Israel’s intelligence, how successful an attack might be, what the reaction of other regional players might be, how long the Iranians and their proxies (Hezbollah, Hamas or Syria) will be capable of and willing to fight, what will be the Israeli public’s reaction to missiles falling on it, and so on,” says Avner Cohen, an expert at the Non-Proliferation Centre at the Monterey Institute of International Studies.

“These are all unknowns about which no one can have accurate advance knowledge. One can initiate a war, but it is not possible to know how and when the fire will be put out.”

Meir Dagan, the former head of Israel’s secret service, the Mossad, created a furor last summer when he publicly accused Mr. Barak and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of pushing their cabinet colleagues to back an attack on Iran.

Shlomo Gazit, a retired Major General who was Israel’s chief of military intelligence in the 1970s, also criticized the possibility of a pre-emptive strike on Iran, declaring, “An Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear reactor will lead to the liquidation of Israel.”

He insists that while Israel has the power and determination to attack Iran, it lacks the ability to do much more than launch a single massive air strike.

“There is no possibility of Israel continuing with a military effort against Iran that is going to last for days, or weeks, or months,” he says. “Israel … will have a very limited interest and that is to destroy the present nuclear capability of Iran, to reach nuclear devices. Period.”

In later discussions, Gen. Gazit dialed back his predictions of disaster, saying he did not think an Iranian counterattack would destroy Israel.

“It will be no doubt painful, but nothing beyond it,” he says now.

Iran’s response to an Israeli or U.S. attack will be crucial to determining how intense any follow-on conflict will become.

So far, Iranian leaders have threatened to retaliate with missile attacks on Israel and its nuclear sites and this week a senior Revolutionary Guard commander vowed no place in the United States would be safe from retaliation.

Iran has also threatened to choke off world oil supplies by closing the Strait of Hormuz. It could opt for an all-out blitz on U.S. military targets in the Persian Gulf and it could invoke allies such as Hezbollah, Hamas and Syria to step up attacks on Israel.

But most experts predict Tehran would, initially at least, resort to a low-key response with low level, unattributed, attacks on U.S. and Israeli targets and possibly by supplying weapons and explosives to Taliban insurgents fighting U.S. troops in neighbouring Afghanistan.

Iran might “play the victim” and offer limited retaliation against Israel in a bid to exploit international outrage to try and weaken international sanctions against it, says Alireza Nader, a policy analyst at the RAND Corp. and co-author of Israel and Iran: A Dangerous Rivalry.

“Iran would almost certainly give the required 90 days notice of its intention to quit the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and terminate inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency,” says Gary Sick, a former U.S. national security advisor who co-ordinated the U.S. response to the Iranian hostage crisis in 1979 and 1980.

In addition to driving up world oil prices by disrupting shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, Mr. Sick says there might also be some “unexplained pipeline explosions in Iraq, possibly by pro-Iranian militias.”

“Extremely vulnerable economies, such as the southern European states, could be tipped into bankruptcy,” Mr. Sick says. “But all states would face significant challenges as a surge in transportation and manufacturing costs rippled through all aspects of their industries.

“This is Iran’s true weapon of mass destruction.”

The United States would be determined to bring any conflict to an end as quickly as possible, says Col. Gardiner’s Swedish study.

“This could lead the United States to the decision to make regime elimination the objective,” he says.

“A U.S. president will have to decide whether to passively await casualties or to attack Iranian military capabilities on its own. The United States would probably decide to finish the job on Iranian nuclear facilities and destroy as much as possible of Iran’s capability to project combat power.”

For now, having cobbled together the harshest economic sanctions ever mobilized against Iran, Washington is willing to give diplomacy one last chance.

But Israeli and U.S. officials, while agreed on how much progress Iran has made enriching uranium, are deeply divided over how to prevent Tehran from building a weapon.

A report, published last week by the U.S. Congressional Research Service, quotes a “very senior Israeli security source” as saying: “Americans tell us there is time and we tell them that they only have about six to nine months more than we do. Therefore, sanctions have to be brought to a culmination now, in order to exhaust that track.”

Most Americans have no idea how much economic trouble is heading our way. Most of them just assume that everything will eventually "return to normal" just like it always has before and that those running our economy "know what they are doing" and that we should trust them to do their jobs.

Unfortunately, these beliefs are being reinforced by the bubble of false hope that we are experiencing right now. For example, it is being reported that weekly unemployment claims in the United States have fallen to a four-year low. That is a very good thing. Let us hope that unemployment claims go even lower and that the current period of stability lasts for as long as possible.

We should enjoy these last fleeing moments of tremendous prosperity for as long as we can, because when they are gone they won't be coming back. As I noted the other day, all of this false prosperity in the United States has been financed by the 15 trillion dollar party that we have been enjoying. We are adding about 150 million dollars to our debt every single hour so that we can continue to enjoy an inflated standard of living.

Unfortunately, nobody in the history of the world has ever been able to keep a debt spiral going indefinitely, and our debt bubble will burst eventually as well.

Sadly, when you attempt to end (or even slow down) a debt spiral the consequences can be extremely painful. Just look at what is happening in Greece. Several waves of austerity measures have been implemented, the Greek economy has been plunged into a full-blown depression and Greek debt is still going up.

The rest of the nations of the eurozone are also now implementing austerity measures, and most of them are also starting to fall into recession. The economic pain in Europe is just beginning and it will go on for quite a long time.

And eventually the United States is going to join the pain. Right now the U.S. government can still borrow trillions of dollars at super low interest rates thanks to games being played by the Federal Reserve. But it is simply not possible for this Ponzi scheme to last too much longer. When it ends, the pain will be extremely great.

And even in the short-term there are some extremely troubling signs for the U.S. economy.

The following are 19 signs of very serious economic trouble on the horizon....

#1 According to one new survey, approximately one-third of all Americans are not paying their bills on time at this point.

#2 The U.S. housing industry is bracing for another huge wave of foreclosures in 2012. The following is from a recent Reuters article....

"We are right back where we were two years ago. I would put money on 2012 being a bigger year for foreclosures than 2010," said Mark Seifert, executive director of Empowering & Strengthening Ohio's People (ESOP), a counseling group with 10 offices in Ohio.

#3 The Citigroup Economic Surprise Index, a key indicator watched by many economists, is on the verge of heading into negative territory.

#4 We are supposed to be in the middle of an economic recovery in the United States, but bad news just keeps pouring in from major companies. For example, Yahoo is firing thousands of workers and Best Buy is closing dozens of stores.

#5 Richard Russell says that the "big money" is starting to quietly exit from the financial markets....

"My guess is that this is the big money that has been holding off as long as it decently can -- and then dumping their goods just before the close. I don't think the big money likes this market, and I think they have been slowly exiting this market, as quietly as they can."

#6 Goldman Sachs is projecting that the S&P 500 will fall by about 11 percent by the end of 2012.

#7 All over the country, local governments are going into default and we have not even entered the next recession yet.

#8 The U.S. government will add more to the national debt in 2012 than it did from the time that George Washington became president to the time that Ronald Reagan became president.

#9 The Federal Reserve is desperately trying to control interest rates. The Fed purchased approximately 61 percent of all government debt issued by the U.S. Treasury Department in 2011. This is the only thing that is keeping interest rates in the United States from soaring dramatically.

#10 German industrial production is falling at a pace that is far faster then expected.

#11 Italy's debt-to-GDP ratio is now up to 120 percent.

#12 The Spanish government admitted on Tuesday that Spain's debt-to-GDP ratio will rise by more than 11 percent this year alone.

#13 Yields on Spanish bonds are rising to dangerous levels.

#14 The Spanish government is projecting that the unemployment rate in Spain will exceed 24 percent by the end of the year.

#15 Unemployment in the eurozone as a whole has risen for 10 months in a row and is now at a 15 year high.

#16 In the aftermath of a 77-year-old retiree killing himself in front of the Greek parliament in protest over pension cuts, the economic rioting in Greece has flared back up dramatically.

#17 At this point, Greece is experiencing an economic depression with no end in sight. Some of the statistics coming out of Greece are really hard to believe. For example, one port town in Greece now has an unemployment rate of approximately 60 percent.

#18 The IMF is asking the United States to contribute more money for European bailouts.

#19 At this point, even some of our top scientists are projecting economic trouble. For example, researchers at MIT are projecting a "global economic collapse" by the year 2030 if current trends continue.

But the truth is that we will experience a "global economic collapse" long before 2030 comes rolling around.

Let us hope that we still have at least several more months of economic prosperity in the United States before things really fall apart.

The truth is that the vast majority of Americans need more time to prepare for what is coming.

Sadly, most Americans are not preparing. Most Americans have blind faith that those in positions of power are going to fix everything and set us on the path to even greater prosperity than ever before.

Unfortunately, all Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and Barack Obama have been doing is kicking the can down the road and making our eventual collapse much worse.

As many of us have painfully learned, you can run from debt for a while, but you can't hide from it forever. Eventually debt catches up with you, and when it does it can be very cruel.

The 15 trillion dollar party is coming to an end, and the consequences of decades of very foolish decisions are going to fall on this generation.

Those who adhere to the gospel of liberal sexuality fall into two different camps when they discuss Jesus. Religious feminists argue that Jesus Christ had a relationship with Mary Magdalene. Religious homosexuals, on the other hand, portray Christ as gay, as the Huffington Post’s Kittredge Cherry did in a piece titled “Queer Christ Arises to Liberate and Heal.”

Cherry, herself a lesbian writing in the HuffPost Gay Voices section, launched her piece with a provocative and ridiculous claim: “Visions of a queer Christ are on the rise as Easter approaches this year – because the conventional Jesus is no longer enough.” The article supplemented that ‘vision” with a depiction of Jesus on the cross with the word “faggot” at the top, instead of “INRI,” like it appears in the Bible.

That would be news to the millions of Christians who do find the conventional Christ more than “enough” for their spiritual fulfillment. But what Cherry really seems to be arguing is that Christ needs to be converted into a gay icon in order to better promote the homosexual agenda.

Cherry’s argument then dives deep into the realm of hallucination, declaring: “Nobody knows for sure whether the historical Jesus was attracted to other men or felt like he was female inside. Some progressive Bible scholars do argue that Jesus had a homosexual relationship.”

So, based on the speculations of radical left-wing theologians which run contrary to 2000 years of Christian thought, Christ is clearly a homosexual.

Cherry continues by making Christ into an everyman figure for the homosexual community in a comment reminiscent of Tom Joad in “The Grapes of Wrath.” “Whenever anyone commits violence against another, Christ is crucified – including when LGBT people are attacked or killed for loving someone of the same sex,” she wrote.

This line of argument is laughable, coming from a community led by people like Dan Savage, who invents terms to slime his opponents and consistently describes his enemies in foul terms – when he isn’t busy hoping to hate f*** his enemies or inviting them to s*** his d***.

Cherry is absolutely correct to say that anyone who harms someone for having homosexual inclination is engaging in sinful behavior. But it is not “attacking” someone to say that a particular behavior is wrong and harmful to the person and others. Indeed, Christians view correcting others’ faults in a spirit of loving charity (called admonishing the sinner) as a Christian duty.

Cherry began her last paragraph with this ridiculous quote: “Being human, Jesus must have had sexual feelings. Being divine, Christ lives in every individual of every different shade of sexual orientation and gender identity.”

But being the perfect human, Christ was able to direct and control His impulses. Homosexuals are indeed welcomed by Christians – and can and do live happy and fulfilled lives – while still holding to Christian teachings on homosexuality.

Being divine, Christ “created man in his own image,” (Genesis 1:27), and declared to His followers: “from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female” (Mark 10:6) There are only two gender identities in Christ’s world: male and female.

By attempting to re-envision Christ as a homosexual, Cherry and her fellow homosexual activists attempt to remake God in their own image. And their image of Christ bears little resemblance to the Christ of the Bible.

Friday, April 6, 2012

There are as the word of God says mysteries of God and his kingdom. None are more profound than an understanding of what Paul called the fellowship of his sufferings. There are many truths, which can be expounded here, but I shall focus on just one.

Jesus is and was the God man. His death was all-inclusive in that he died for the sins of the whole of humanity, but the love of God compels him to apply this truth on an individual basis. God did not just send his Son to offer himself as the eternal sacrifice of the world, and simply issue a broad proclamation to the world that it had been done. No he sent the Holy Spirit into the world as a witness that these things be true. But much more precious than this to speak to each individual heart that this is true for them. At Calvary there may be millions or possibly billions that have stood there, but they were brought there and ministered to one by one.

Jesus however did not just die. He rose again and by that resurrection infused in every human heart that would believe in him that same new life with which he came out of the grave. The fellowship of his sufferings does not speak of all the tests and trials we all face from day to day. No it is a higher calling, a godly proclamation, and invitation to one and all followers of Jesus Christ. Jesus died for all, he also rose for all, and sprinkled his blood on the altar of God when he rose and appeared before his Father.

,His Father accepted his sacrifice for all, and by so doing opened the human heart to the divine. We are in Christ in a vital union with God himself. His life is alive on the inside of our hearts. We like Christ have according to Paul been included in Christ when he died. We have also been infused with the ability to come boldly to the throne of grace. Jesus in both his death and resurrection laid down his life for others.

Yet by his resurrection his heart is no less noble, for he daily and for all time has given himself sacrificially by allowing himself to be in union with all believers everywhere. Jesus Christ eternal sacrifice did not end with the cross. No he is in a vital union with each and every one of us. He carries our hurts, and intercedes to the Father on our behalf. He is not just looking down and with a heart full of benevolence merely moved by all we are going through.

No saint of God he is in union with us. When we hurt he hurts and feels all that we are going through because the two have been made one in him. There is nothing, which may affect us in this life of which he is immune. He feels every heart break, is moved with compassion with every tear. His heart is grieved with every act of abuse because he feels what we feel. He can do nothing less for he knew when he died for all mankind that when he rose he was for all time bringing himself into a vital connection with us.

Yet wonder of wonders it does not end here. No as we are filled with his life, and begin to be filled with a hunger to know him, a remarkable thing begins to occur. Paul understood all to well the fellowship of his sufferings. The scars on his back and the dungeons in which he spent much of his life are a living record of this. We followers of Christ as we spend time with him undergo a dramatic internal change. Somewhere and somehow we go from living for ourselves to living for others.

We find ourselves alone in the night seasons crying out to God for the pain and suffering of the wounded all around us. We begin to little by little have the focus of our prayer life and purpose for life transformed by our vital connection to him. We move from self-centeredness to feeling like our Lord,

the sorrows and suffering of others. We are blessed to be changed by his great heart so that we share the fellowship of his sufferings for others.

that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, becoming conformed unto his death; that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, becoming conformed unto his death; (Philippians 3:10 ASV)

Not 24 hours after Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned that a pre-emptive strike (by the US and/or Israel) would violate international law, Moscow put muscle into his warning: Tuesday, April 3, the Russian guided missile destroyer Smetliviy arrived in the Syrian port of Tartus from its Black Sea base for a naval exercise. The warship’s support group is on the way.

DEBKAfile’s military sources report that the Russian flotilla carried a threefold message for Washington:

1. The Russian-Iranian strategy of propping up the Assad regime which has brought the Syrian ruler close to victory over his foes, will continue: Diplomacy will be propelled by military impetus.

2. Russia is providing the Assad regime with defense systems capable of repelling foreign military intervention.

3. Consigning the Smetliviy warship to Syria illustrates Moscow’s new rapid response policy: Russia is launching a naval exercise in the eastern Mediterranean to match the “Noble Dina” air and naval maneuver the US, Israel and Greece are conducting across a broad expanse of sea between Crete and the Israeli bases at Haifa and Ashdod.

Israeli warships and air force jets may therefore find themselves not just operating alongside US naval and aircraft but confronted suddenly by one of the largest destroyers in the Russian fleet (NATO-coded ASW-submarine warfare), whose decks are the launching base for anti-air, anti-ship and anti-submarine missiles.

The Smetliviy’s support group, believed to be a supply vessel and a submarine, passed through the Bosporus Saturday, March 31 on their way to Tartus.

A human rights official in Kentucky says it might be perfectly fine for a printing company run by “gays” to refuse to print anti-”gay” literature, but a Christian company refusing to print T-shirts for a “gay” event would not have that same right.

The statements come from Raymond Sexton, executive director for the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Human Rights Commission, in a dispute raised by local “gay” event promoters.

Hands On Originals, a company in Lexington, Ky., is being investigated by the commission after a local “gay” and lesbian group complained the company refused a request to print T-shirts for a local homosexual festival.

The company, which prominently says on its home page it is “Christian Outfitters,” and states a “right of refusal,” sells and produces a variety of custom products including clothing, coffee mugs, memory sticks and other items.

The Gay and Lesbian Services Organization wanted the company to print T-shirts for the Lexington Pride Festival and submitted a request without letting the company know the message to be printed.

Ultimately, the price from Hands On Online was the lowest bid. However, once the company became aware of what the shirts were going to be used for, officials declined the work, explaining creating and publicizing messages that promoted homosexuality were incompatible with the Christian values, on which the company was based, that viewed homosexuality as a sin.

In an attempt to accommodate the group, Hands on Online offered to locate another printer who would do the shirts for the same price by the deadline for the order.

The homosexuals refused and instead filed a complaint with the Lexington-Fayette Commission, alleging discrimination based on their sexual orientation.

The complaint says:

“Members of GLSO were told that our Pride Festival T-shirt printing quote would not be honored due to the fact that the T-shirt company is a Christian organization.”

“We believe we have been discriminated against … based on sexual orientation.”

Following the complaint, the Lexington school district announced it was temporarily halting purchases from the company until the issue is resolved.

Jay Blanton, a spokesman for the University of Kentucky which has paid about $200,000 to the company since 2011, said he also is reconsidering their relationship with the company.

Sexton said Hands On Originals was subject to the city’s human rights ordinance which includes LGBT persons as a protected class because the company deals in goods and services to the public.

Blaine Adamson, owner of the company, released a statement to the Lexington Herald Leader, disputing that they discriminate against anyone based on their sexual preferences, stating the issue is over the message on the shirt — essentially a free speech issue.

In the terms and conditions section under “Right of Refusal” the company states, “Hands On Originals both employs and conducts business with people of all genders, races, religions, sexual preferences, and national origins.”

“However, due to the promotional nature of our products, it is the prerogative of Hands On Originals to refuse any order that would endorse positions that conflict with the convictions of the ownership.”

Sexton told WND that the investigation was still ongoing, however if the company based its decision on sexual orientation it would be violating the law.

He went on to say that if a “gay” printing company was asked to print T-shirts from the Westboro Baptist Church, which is a militant anti-”gay” organization, saying “Homosexuality is an abomination in the eyes of God,” the “gay” group would have the right to refuse to print the order.

“If the company does not approve of the message that is a valid non-discriminatory reason to refuse the work,” he said.

He also said a black business owner would have the right to refuse to print a flyer for a Klan rally.

However, when asked if the same would apply to Hands On Online if officials said “we don’t support ‘gay’ pride festivals, but we won’t discriminate against a person because they are ‘gay,’” Sexton was not as committed, simply saying “possibly.”

“This is a gray area, but possibly. I can’t say definitively, but it possibly could pass the test,” he said. “I would recommend they take the word ‘gay’ out of there and say they simply don’t approve of the message.”

Sexton also hinted he was skeptical of the company saying they were not going to do the shirts because of the homosexual message.

“From what I understand the message on the T-shirt was just their organization with the number 5. There was not any pro or anti-’gay’ message on the T-shirt.”

Lexington Mayor Jim Gray suggested the Christians should get over it. “People don’t have patience for this sort of attitude today.”

This is not the first time “gays” and lesbians have attempted to force a Christian business owner to violate their biblical convictions and accept their lifestyle.

Last year Victoria’s Cake Cottage in Iowa was threatened with a lawsuit and boycott by homosexuals after owner Victoria Childress told a lesbian couple she would not design a wedding cake for them because she believes marriage is between a man and a woman. Iowa is one of the few states where same-sex couples are allowed to marry.

Childress was approached by two women who asked her to design a wedding cake. When she asked them who it was for they said they were getting married to each other.

Upon hearing this, she politely advised the couple that due to her biblical convictions that marriage was between a man and a woman, she would not be able to make the cake.

“At no time was I impolite to them, I even took time to recommend other cake manufacturers that could assist them,” Childress said.

Rather than show tolerance towards Childress’ convictions and appreciate the effort given to help them find a baker, the couple went to a local media outlet and homosexual activists threatened her with a lawsuit under anti-discrimination laws.

Like Hands On Online, Childress says she has no problem doing work for anybody, just not a wedding cake.

“I believe in the sanctity of marriage. I won’t do ‘naughty cakes’ either for the same reason. I am standing for what the Bible says is right,” Childress said. “If they had come in and asked me to do a birthday cake, even if I knew they were lesbians, I would have done it.”

While Childress was never charged with discrimination, she says she is not surprised that an LGBT group is going after another Christian company that is standing for biblical principles towards the “gay” lifestyle.

She said a lawyer told her that the reason “gay” groups never pursued her in court was because she was too small and they were waiting for a bigger company to go after.

“He said they knew if they went after me they would be seen as a big bully and that’s not what they want. They want to go after the big corporations because that is where they can get the attention and the payouts are big.”

Additionally, WND has reported on the case of a photograph company in New Mexico. There Alan M. Malott, a judge at the district level, affirmed a state Civil Rights Commission order that two lesbians were allowed to force two photography company owners to violate their religious beliefs by photographing a same-sex “wedding,” even thought that ceremony was not legal in the state.

The case developed in 2006 when two lesbians asked Elaine Huguenin, co-owner with her husband, Jon Huguenin, of Elane Photography in Albuquerque, to photograph a “ceremony” that Willock and another woman wanted to hold in Taos. Neither marriage nor civil unions are legal between members of the same sex in New Mexico.

Elaine Huguenin declined because of her and her husband’s Christian beliefs.

The state ordered a $6,600 fine imposed on the company.

Malott said his ruling was based on the fact that homosexuals are granted special protections not given to other groups under state law.

A Shelby County mother is facing contempt-of-court charges and possible jail time for baptizing her two children without the knowledge or consent of her ex-husband.

This week the Tennessee Court of Appeals said Lauren Jarrell must face a criminal contempt hearing for violating a court order that said major decisions regarding the religious upbringing of her two children should be made jointly with her-ex-husband.

The mother and her ex-husband, Blake Jarrell, are both Christian — he’s a Methodist and she’s a Presbyterian.

Court records say the father thought the children should be baptized once they are older. He has asked that his ex-wife be found in criminal contempt for baptizing the children without his knowledge or permission.

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About Me

I have been in Christian ministry for over thirty years. I have served as a Pastor, missionary, chaplain, and I am currently working as a prayer couselor at CBN. This past year I celebrated my 50th spiritual birthday. I have had an active prophetic ministry for 27 years.